Please find our latest Newsletter full of Actions and reports. Starting with a very urgent Action on Turkey, we are also campaigning for justice for Zineb Redouane, who was killed by a tear gas grenade in France. For the last year we have been campaigning against unlawful pushbacks and the inhumane and cruel treatment of asylum-seekers who tried to enter the European Union via Belarus. (Europe -wide action January 15^th Stop Refugees Freezing about refugees trapped in the freezing forests between Poland and Belarus).

Meanwhile we have received shocking reports about violent pushbacks and detention of refugees in overcrowded conditions as well as cruel treatment amounting to torture from Lithuania and now in the latest report from Latvia. The treatment of asylum-seekers from war-torn and repressive countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Congo, Iraq and Eritrea stands in stark contrast to the warm welcome offered to refugees from Ukraine. We are calling for all refugees and asylum-seekers to be treated with compassion and dignity and offered protection from persecution.

At the end of this newsletter you will find an action which is not (yet) an amnesty case but a Syrian family being supported in their community.

Darkness is rarely lifted by itself. We have to continue to light the candle standing up for universal human rights.

Türkiye

FREE PROF ŞEBNEM KORUR FİNCANCI

Prof Şebnem Korur Fincancı is a prominent forensic medicine doctor, a member of the Human Rights Foundation of Türkiye and the head of the Union of Turkish Medical Associations. As a human rights defender, she has been subjected to baseless criminal investigations, detentions and prosecutions in the past. In 2016, she was briefly remanded in pre-trial detention when prosecuted for ‘propaganda for a terrorist organization’ for her role as a symbolic editor of the shuttered Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem. Along with her two co-defendants, she was acquitted in 2019 but their acquittals were overturned on appeal and their retrial is ongoing.

Over the last seven years, the Union of Turkish Medical Associations has also been targeted in multiple criminal investigations under Türkiye’s overly broad anti-terrorism laws, their prominent members subjected to detention and prosecutions.

In the early hours of 26 October 2022, police detained Prof Fincancı. A criminal investigation was launched against her after she called for an independent investigation into allegations that Turkish armed forces might have used chemical weapons in Kurdistan Region of Iraq in comments during a live TV interview. Amnesty International is calling for Prof Fincancı to be released immediately and unconditionally from detention and must not be prosecuted for her human rights work.

There is an Urgent Action aimed at the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor. Please take part in this action as soon as possible and circulate it to supporters to maximise the impact. Download and edit with your details this  Sample Letter

Pressure on Freedom of Expression

In yet another squeeze on freedom of expression in Türkiye, in early October the authorities pushed a bill through parliament that enables three year sentences to be imposed on individuals who the courts decide have been publicly spreading “false information”.  The broad, “catch all” wording of the new criminal code will make it very difficult for individuals to be able to judge in advance whether they are likely to fall foul of it and there are significant concerns that this will lead to increasing self censorship by civil society groups. [Read more…]

Here is our latest Newsletter with updates and actions.

MALTA: EL HIBLU 3

The prosecution against the El Hiblu 3 has rested its case. That means that the court has finished hearing testimonies in the pre-trial period & the Attorney General will soon decide
which charges to bring against the El Hiblu 3.
We need to continue to push the Attorney General to DROP ALL THE CHARGES AGAINST ABDALLA, AMARA AND KADER!
To help us fight for their justice, an open letter to Malta Attorney General Dr Victoria Buttigieg was signed by supporters and sent to her on 28 September . The link to the open letter can be found here: https://elhiblu3.info/openletter.
Read Abdalla’s story here: https://elhiblu3.info/abdalla.
Read Amara’s story here: https://elhiblu3.info/amara.
Read Kader’s story here: https://elhiblu3.info/kader.
Further actions in support of the El Hiblu 3 will be sent to you as they appear.

Türkiye

Saturday Mothers

As I reported in the last edition of the newsletter the next (5th) hearing of the Saturday Mothers case was due to take place on 21st September.

Several colleagues from AI Türkiye were present, as were representatives of Turkish civil society organisations, Article 19 and some other human rights organisations, members of parliament and others.

On Monday 19 September, Saturday Mothers/People issued an appeal on social media announcing that they will issue a press statement outside the courthouse at 12.30. As result, the district governorate issued a decision to ban the gathering for one day, providing for reason the following: ‘in order to protect the rights and freedoms of others, because it represents a threat to public order, also because of the sensitive period our country is in and that it would create uproar, hurt national, conscience and human values, threatening societal peace, considering also that there may be the possibility of physical and verbal provocative actions between the organisers and citizens, in order to ensure public order, prevent the commission of crime and for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others might be threatened, that the planned events might need to unwanted outcomes..’
In the event, on the 21st the Saturday Mothers/People group and their lawyers and supporters were kettled outside the court by police both in uniforms and civilian clothes.

Even though they agreed not to read the press statement, they were then prevented from leaving the space, and 16 relatives, including three lawyers and supporters were detained with police apparently using excessive force – the footage in the link below shows the detention of one of the participants, Alper Tas a member of parliament from the CHP Party.
https://twitter.com/t24comtr/status/1572531900249423872?s=20&t=Vb4DcDDZbnes8T4-mFO4lg

Eventually the interim decision taken by the court was that of the 46 defendants, those who have yet to appear in the trial are called in one last time, the requests for criminal complaint regarding the police intervention to be rejected, with the next hearing set for 3 February 2023 at 2pm. The day after the latest hearing the European Parliament Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sánchez Amor paid a visit to the Istanbul Branch of the Human Rights Association to show solidarity with the Saturday Mothers. The link below contains video of a statement he made after that visit.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1573658477637107714

It is very important that as a Human Rights movement, we increase our solidarity with the Saturday Mothers and continue to challenge the denial of their rights to peaceful assembly. We will pass on further actions on this case as they requested by the International Secretariat. [Read more…]

Human and civil rights continue to be under attack inside and outside Europe and need defending. This autumn Amnesty will launch a new campaign focusing on the right to protest. We know that here at home the right to protest is severely threatened by the Police , Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 , which  received royal assent on 29^th April 2022. Our first international action is focusing on France (see on-line petition below) and we will be working on the UK later in the year. Another toxic piece of legislation, the Nationality & Borders Bill  became law on 28^th June 2022, scrapping the right to asylum.

Care for Calais, Detention Action and PCS Union are challenging the government decision to deport refugees who arrived in the UK by boat over the channel to Rwanda. Seeking asylum is a human right, and the UK can not dodge its responsibility facilitate fair asylum hearings and to grant asylum to refugees by deporting desperate people elsewhere. UNHCR stated that the vast majority of asylum seekers arriving via the channel are having a valid claim. We are calling for safe and legal routes for refugees to enter Europe and the UK, so that no-one has to risk their lives in order to reach safety. Read more below.

In January we protested against the inhuman conditions refugees from war-torn Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Congo and other places were suffering at the border of Belarus and Poland. In Amnesty’s new report on Lithuania we read chilling evidence of abuse and torture in the detention centres where refugees from outside Europe are detained. Please take action and write to the Interior Minister of Lithuania (Sample letter included).

But last not least some good news ! Please read how activists standing up for LGBT rights in Hungary outsmarted the so-called referendum, designed to further marginalise and criminalise LGBT+ people and communities

Right to protest under threat in Western Europe

MILITARISATION OF POLICING in FRANCE

While governments have long relied on aggressive tactics to police protests, security forces have increased the amount of force they use in recent years.

So-called less lethal weapons, including batons, pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons, and rubber bullets are routinely misused by security forces. And, since the early 2000s, Amnesty International has documented a trend towards the militarisation of state responses to protests, including the use of armed forces and military equipment. In countries including France security forces in full riot gear are often backed by armoured vehicles, military-grade aircraft, surveillance drones, guns and assault weapons, stun grenades and sound cannons.

France: Abusive and illegal use of force by police

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO CONFRONT UNPRECEDENTED WORLDWIDE THREAT TO THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

In the coming months we will focus on the Right to protest in Western Europe as part of the Amnesty´s global campaign to confront worldwide threat to the right to protest.

Amnesty International’s “Protect the Protest” campaign will challenge attacks on peaceful protest, stand with those targeted and support the causes of social movements pushing for human rights change.

Protect the Protest! Why we must save our right to protest

At the moment you can join online to demand our freedoms and pledge your support to protect the protest.

Please sign the petition here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/protect-the-protest/

We are considering at the moment further actions that can be taken from the UK in order to campaign for the right to protest in Western and Northern Europe, and we will announce those actions in our next newsletter.

“Our campaign comes at a critical juncture. The precious right to protest is being eroded at a terrifying pace, and we must do all we can to push back.” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty [Read more…]